Shut up - From The Stands

The resignation the other day of Aprodicio Laquian 45 days after taking office as Chief of Staff of Malacañang and its acceptance by President Estrada came as a shock. Laquian called it quits after learning that the Chief Executive had taken umbrage at his unguarded comment during a forum sponsored by the Manila Overseas Press Club about the Chief's staying up until 4 in the morning with his drinking buddies. The President had reportedly seen the video tape of the evening's affair in which Laquian said . . . "at 4 o'clock in the morning, I am the only sober person in the room. And if this is Canada, I will be the designated driver, I will be the one taking them to their beds . . ."

Laquian had meant that to be joke, but it apparently turned out to be in bad taste. It was really like an Erap joke. At least that's how some people view the episode. Still, there was no reason for President Erap to feel very hurt by that comment -- his popularity rating being very low already. A joke -- a truthful comment made in jest -- could not add more damage to his tarnished reputation. The public knows he is a drunkard no matter his protestation that he has stopped taking hard liquor. There are stories of him with no thanks to Reli German (where is he, by the way) -- of his entertaining embassy officials calling in on him in Malacañang wearing two differently-colored shoe laces, of his speech being slurred and grammar being mixed up, of his sulong-urong stances.

I just pity Laquian for having given up his Canadian citizenship to qualify for the Malacañang position offered him.

Representatives of major women networks recently arrived from New York after attending the 44th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The CSW met in two sessions, and acted as the preparatory committee (PrepCom) for the Beijing+5 Special Session (scheduled for June) of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st century." The sessions were attended by over 2000 participants, including high-level government officials, UN agency representatives, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the media.

The Philippine NGO delegation was led by Red Cross President Leonor Ines Luciano; Daphne D. Roxas, coordinator of the Philippine NGO Beijing Score Board, Karen Tanada of WAND, Eleanor Conda and Carolyn Sobritchea, director of the UP Women's Studies Center. Other members of the NGO delegation funded by Ford Foundation were Lydia Canson of the Davao-based Development of Peoples Foundation, and Rowena Alvarez of ISSA.

The Philippine NGO delegation pushed for government's upholding of commitments to implement the Beijing Platform for Action as specified in 12 areas of concern. Special focus of the NGOS was on strategic actions and initiatives on poverty eradication, especially on the need for safety nets to protect women from the adverse impact of globalization and the financial crisis that hit most developing countries in Asia.

Another important area of concern for Philippine NGOS was the upholding of the BPFA's provision on women's reproductive health and reproductive rights and on women's rights as human rights.

Like what happened during the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing five years ago, a large contingent of men and women representing conservative and reactionary groups tried to impose their views on the various NGO caucuses during the UN meeting. Descending in greater numbers than the youth caucus, they were reported to have harassed the participants some of whom shed tears in anger. What the conservative lobbyists wanted was for the caucus to disregard provisions of the Beijing Platform for Action and only consider the provisions of the Cairo Report which reflected the conservative views of the church in such issues as reproductive rights and sexual orientation.

Daphne Roxas reported that the sessions, especially the Working Group of G-77 and China were painfully slow. In the heavily negotiated sessions, delegates accomplished little, succeeding only in lifting brackets from a few paragraphs in each section of the outcome document. In the end, despite many efforts in working groups and among group consultations to finish an initial reading of the entire heavily bracketed text, many issues remain unresolved.